Saturday, July 5, 2014

Just
yesterday my mother and I went to shopping in Bajo. We live in Punakha but my
father has his office in Bajo. These days he comes home for lunch so we went
with him and came when his office hours were over. His office is at the top
lane so we got out at the last lane to shop our way up.

We did not
have many things to buy but the things we had to buy were of different items.
So we thought that we would take lots of time going from shop to shop. But the
complete opposite happened we got all our things from the first four shops we
visited. We bought our clothes from the first shop we visited after getting off
the vehicle. We got my electronic things from the second shop we went to and
the kitchen items from the third shop. Then we just strolled through the town
seeking anything that might catch our eyes. After reaching father’s office we
stayed there till father’s office hour was over.

My father
loves sports and he can play many different sports too. His favourite is
Archery or I assume its archery because he mostly plays archery. Because of these he knows all the archery
ground there are near him. One of them is the recently built archery ground in
Bajothanggu near the Punatshang Chhu. On our way back from Bajo yesterday
father took us there. In the middle of the archery ground there is a small shop
near the river bank. The shop has a little veranda built facing the river. From
there we get to see the slowing flowing river in front and the mountain
surrounding it. The shop feels like it’s built over the river even though
there is about two metre gap between the shop and the river. It is a very peaceful place. From the little
veranda we could see about twelve temples including Nalanda and Khujula Goenpa.

My mother
loves to maintain her own garden. Everywhere we stay she always keeps a small
garden, both vegetables and flower. She likes to collect different flowers
especially different colours of geranium. If my mother is nowhere to be found
in the house she is in her garden.

She mostly
grows maize, chilli, beans, tomato, pumpkin, eggplants, peas, shallots, sag
and garlic. When I came home this vacation there are mostly maize, chilli,
beans and pumpkin. Because of these I get to eat as many maize as I want.

These days
it is very hot especially in the morning, therefore she tends her garden in the
afternoon when the sun is not so hot. The maize in the garden was ripe so I too
helped to pluck it. We weeded the vegetable garden and plucked the maize.

I am an only child; I do not have any siblings. However to
compensate for these I have many cousins, about thirty of them (counting only
the close ones). Most of them live in Thimphu which is good in a way because
then I get to meet with all of them at once.

On the 29th of this month I went to visit them.
The main person I wanted to see was my sick uncle (mother’s sister’s husband,
my mother’s only big sister Dechen). He has been sick for over a year now with
kidney failure (both). He has been surviving on dialysis every five days. He
got a kidney last time and went to Calcutta but it was not compatible with him.
On the 30th he was going to Bangalore for more than three months so
we wanted to meet him before he left. His brother finally agreed to donate one
of his kidneys.

On the 30th
his had to report to the airport at 5:00 am, three families including his went
to see him off. The photos are of when his plane left.

After he left we thought that his family might become sad so
we went to Sangaygang which did not turn out so well. We reached there, spread
out mats and were eating and drinking when the rain poured on us. We had no
choice but to leave. We then went to my aunt Dechen’s house (my mother’s
sister) and stayed there talking till night fall.

Here is a view of Thimphu from Sangaygang.

I love animals. House cats are easy to deal with than other
animals as they are not so dangerous. My aunt showed me her kittens, it’s not
her cat exactly but most of the times the cat stays in her house and has given
birth there. There are four kittens, three of them have their fur like their
mother but one of them is white with only a little patch of black on head and
tail. They are all very active or rather naughty. While we cousins were looking
at the kittens most wanted to take the white one when it was older. However it
was already claimed by my aunt Sangay (same age as my mother but smaller than
few months, she is the third eldest from their siblings).